Edshugeo The GodMoor

Good article by Richard Kim. I'm swiping the ending though. The whole thing can be read here.

I only read the first bunch out of 200+ comments. It's like those people have no idea what they're responding to.

Are white working-class voters really racist? How many and where? If a significant number of them are, should Democrats really court them on the terms of their racism? These are questions worth asking since, apparently, a lot of Democrats think they're valid. But as long as the Clinton campaign continues to code the fact that it is counting on a base of white racist support, we'll never have this conversation. And as long as the mainstream media indulges the euphemism of "electability"--one that makes white racism seem like a personal deficiency of Barack Obama's--we'll be stuck mucking around in diffuse fears and anxieties that nobody, least of all Hillary Clinton, wants to name.

So here's my final suggestion: as long as Barack Obama is called upon to explain, denounce and reject black racism, let's have it both ways. Let's have George Stephanopoulos ask Hillary Clinton how she feels about the white racist vote?

Hat tip: SubRealism

May 14th, 2008 - plus an SNL clip as found on Assault On Black Folk's Sanity;

Labels: politics, society, Truth, youtube and other video

Just Be A Woman.

Not to be confused with "Iron my shirt" or anything like that. But if you can't show your human side, you might as well be content to do your thing behind the scenes.

Kinda like Dick Cheney.

Labels: music, politics, solutions?, Songza, Truth

Spoilers below.





This is one of my favorite television moments. Mandela is questioned (in 1990) about his controversial alliances with the likes of Castro, Arafat, and Qadafi and the possible negative consequences of proclaiming these men to be his comrades. Mandela's answer literally silences Kopell to the point that he has to break the ice to move things forward. Kopell's Adam West like response is a noble, yet ineffective effort to save face, but kinda adds to the hilarity.

Labels: Awesome, funny-ass shit, Heroes, nostalgia, politics, South Africa, Truth, tv, World Affairs

In a discussion about Marvel and Del Ray producing imitation manga featuring the X-Men and Wolverine comes this quote (which comes from a previous story) from C.B. Cebulksi:

...OEL is not manga. It is manga influenced. If we want to split hairs, in my opinion "OEL Manga" is actually an oxymoron. (Aside from the three or four original manga stories produced by Japanese artists for the non-Japanese market...) I'm going to spoil one of my points in an upcoming interview here, but I think it's important I point out that, despite how much people like to say ""Manga" is Japanese for comics.", it's not! "Komikusu" (the transliteration of "comics") is Japanese for comics. There's a big difference. I've had this conversation a thousand times and argued both sides, from the American and Japanese POV, but the simple fact is, if you ask any Japanese manga reader, writer, artist, editor or publisher, the term "manga" is Japanese for "Japanese comic". Plain and simple. Trust me, the Japanese are very specific in their comic terminology. Manga means Japanese comic. AmeComi is American Comic. BeDe or Bande Desinee is for anything produced in Europe. Manwha is Korean. Manhua is Chinese. And so on.... They're sticklers for their labels. Now I've spoken with editors at many of the major Japanese publishers, and at lots of the smaller ones too. They all agree on one thing; this "OEL" boom they hear about coming from the States is a marketing ploy. They don't appreciate it being branded as "manga". So much so that (and I don't want to piss off other fellow comic creators here any more than I already have), the Japanese already have a term for it. What we call "OEL", they're calling "Nissei Comi", which can be translated to mean "second generation" or "fake" comics. Look, agree or diasgree, I'm just stating facts here. Offering up a side of the discussion most people don't get to hear. Yes, this will rock the boat a bit and I know that, but I'm just trying to give another perspective on the discussion. Manga is purely Japanese and that's just how it is.

from Newsarama.com

I've never actually heard the two words spoken, but it would seem to me that Manwha and Manhua would sound identical when spoken. No?

Labels: comics, japanese, Truth

Here's some heavier stuff, and for the above, a hat-tip to CNulan's blog whose reading level is genius.

Labels: blogs, fun, Truth

While I agree intellectually with most, if not all of the points made in Shay's article at Booker Rising (click the title above to read it), I have to say The Three Six Mafia were the most interesting part of the big show. And their song wasn't half bad either.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't watch most of the show. I'd forgotten it was on till just after nine (it started here at eight, I think) and when I tuned in, I divided my time between that and some other stuff. I miss Jon Stewart's Daily Show. I keep my cable TV very basic since I pay enough for cable internet, which allows me to find whatever I miss anyway. Still, I haven't really bothered to hunt down his show in a while.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doesn't it seem like Booker T. Washington should be older than 150? It's about another month from now, but happy birthday, just in case I forget.

Labels: fun, society, Truth, tv

Holocaust denier deserves to be ignored, not thrown in prison By Richard Cohen

Last winter, on a cold and black night, I went to hear the Holocaust denier David Irving speak at the University of Colorado. I arrived early to get a good seat and soon after me came five huge young men, all of them looking like skinheads. I glared at them, and they glared at me and for a moment I feared I was going to meet my maker. But it turned out that when Irving started to speak, the skinheads of my fertile imagination rose as one, unfurled an Israeli flag and announced themselves as Jewish protesters. Had it not been for those protesters, a handful of the curious and me, Irving could have held his lecture in a nearby broom closet. He is a man of justifiably small following, a claque of bigots so addled by Jew-hatred that they cannot see the evidence before their own eyes. The many pictures, the films, the artifacts, the testimony of victims and perpetrators alike is to them proof of a different kind: the ability of Jews to hoodwink the world. It never happened. The Holocaust is a lie. Now Irving has admitted the lie is his. There were gas chambers at Auschwitz, he now admits. The Jews there did not die of disease, but were murdered outright and fed into the ovens. This confession of truth was extracted by a dilemma. Irving was facing jail time in Austria for the crime of denying the Holocaust. His penitence got him very little. A judge hit him with a three-year sentence. A little delicious satisfaction is allowed. Irving is a liar. He is an anti-Semite. He has squandered his considerable gifts at dreary research for the glad rags of demagoguery. He had a Web page. He gave lectures. He sued and was sued. He picked the pockets of the gullible. Years ago, he mistook justifiable criticism by some Jews as an attack by an entire people. This is the odd talent of the anti-Semite: to see all by seeing one. Still, it is troubling to fight fire with fire - a fascist mentality with fascist laws. At the very heart of totalitarianism is an absolute fear of dissent. Anti-Semitism is an idea - a bad one, an odious one, but one all the same. The current Austrian government enforces a law against Holocaust denial that is an attempt to ensure that the old days do not return, but it is always a bad idea to have such legislation on the books. It is a precedent others can abuse. Article 48 of Germany's pre-Nazi Weimar constitution allowed the president to rule by decree in times of emergency. The law was abused in the Weimar era and then, of course, by Hitler. It got him on his feet as a dictator. The remarkable thing about bad laws is their plasticity: anyone can bend them to their needs. Germany, France and other European countries also have laws regarding Holocaust denial. These are some of the same countries who hold Turkey in sneering contempt for its law forbidding any insult to "Turkishness" - specifically references to the massacre of Armenians during World War I and the more recent trouble with the Kurds. To many Europeans, this is proof of Turkey's alien ways and a reason it should not be admitted into the European Union. It does not occur to many Europeans that Turkey is merely protecting its version of history as Austria and the others protect theirs. Truth, of course, matters - but what also matters, critically if not paramountly, is the effort to impose it by government fiat. It is easy enough to dismiss Irving and say he doesn't matter. But what makes him dangerous is not his ideas, but the official, censorious, response to them. He is muscled up solely by virtue of the forces arrayed against him. These governments, particularly Austria, have transformed the imbecilic into something exotically taboo. By banning these ideas, the various European governments accord them a certain respect: See, why are they afraid of us? It must be because what we say is true. Let Irving howl his idiocy in freedom. He doesn't deserve to be jailed. He deserves to be ignored. Originally published on February 23, 2006

Labels: society, Truth, World Affairs

I tuned in last night to Joe Scarborough's MSNBC show last night to watch my favorite radio talk show host, Lionel. I got home about quarter after the show began, but didn't miss anything. Lionel's appearance wasn't until the last ten minutes or so, and while somewhat amusing, not a big deal. He was doing it during his show, and it was interesting to hear the same exchanges from the other side when I listened to the podcast of last night's radio show, this morning, on the way to work.

An unexpected bonus was seeing one of my favorite bloggers, Grady Hendrix of Kaiju Shakedown on the show to "discuss" some ridiculous Turkish film which includes "Big Hollywood Stars", Gary Busey and Billy Zane cast as unsimpathetic Americans during the war in Iraq, or something. Busey is (from accounts) a Jewish doctor who harvests the organs of Iraqi casualties. Funny. He doesn't look Jewish. He kinda looks like Nick Nolte's mugshot, if Nolte would open his mouth a little bit and breath through it.

Anyway, it wasn't pretty. Hendrix was pit against that guy from The Catholic League whom you may've seen on other shows like this, and he (William Donohue) was in mad dog form. Hendrix managed to keep his wits about him, kinda, but the exchange and Scarborough's douchebaggery reminded me why I don't normally watch this crap. Not every day, anyway. You know, sometimes.

Click here to read Mr. Hendrix's account of the behind the scenes goings on at Scarborough Country. There's also a link to the video, if you scroll down on that page.

January 14th, 2008 - Those links are dead. Fortunately, I emailed the text to a friend which I still have, so here it is. Not the video, though.
---------------------------------------------------------

WHERE'S MY COOKIE?

They told me there’d be cookies. That’s what the producers promised me. “Oh, you’re in Media 3? We’ve got great cookies there.” But when I showed up what did I find? Three lone chocolate cjhip cookies on a paper plate sitting at the reception desk like something left out for Santa Claus. With only three cookies I couldn’t bring myself to take one, it would be like taking the last piece of cake. These cookies weren’t a yummy treat. These cookies were a trap for the unwary. Sort of like the show itself.

When a producer called me on Thursday morning and asked me to be on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country” that night I figured “why not?” I’m a relentless whore for attention and the glamour of being on television has seduced weaker minds than mine. There was no pay involved but they would send a car to pick me up and bring me home like I was some kind of high-class call girl.

The segment was about a new Turkish movie, VALLEY OF THE WOLVES: IRAQ which is basically a Turkish Rambo where the bad guys are the Americans in Iraq, played by Gary Busey and Billy Zane. Zane plays an evil US soldier who sounds like a Christian version of Ron O’Neal’s Colonel Bella in RED DAWN. Gary Busey plays a doctor at Abu Ghraib listed on the movie’s official website as “a Jew” who harvests organs from dead Iraqis and sells them on the black market. For Busey this is a step up from his role in last year’s GINGERDEAD MAN and for Zane, well after he slapped around Kate Winslett in TITANIC doesn’t everyone think he’s evil anyways?

The day was spent being fattened up like a lamb for the slaughter. A producer called and told me that host Chuck Scarborough “responds well to facts” and that the other guest was going to be William Donahue, president of the Catholic League. The make-up woman told me my skin was very well moisturized and problem-free.

“Ooh,” she cooed. “It’s so rare to find a gentleman who is comfortable with skin care.”

While I waited I called every number in my cell phone to calm my nerves but no one was home, not even my mother. Actually I did talk to two of my sisters but I’m not sure it helped. I love my sisters but they’re way too smart for their own good.

“Keep your mouth closed so you don’t look like stupid,” said one. “Don’t touch your face or clear your throat. It’s called ‘respiratory avoidance’ and it makes it look like you’re lying.”

Great. Respiratory avoidance. Another thing to worry about. My other sister was even more encouraging. “Either it’s going to be really funny, or else you’re going to get destroyed on national TV. I can’t wait!”

I don’t have cable, not because I’m smart but because I would never get anything done if I had easy access to the Home Shopping Network, so sitting in the bathroom-sized lounge while I waited to go on the air was the first chance I had to see the show.

The host, Joe Scarborough, was talking about the Murder in Massachusetts but it wasn’t his intensity or his “power fingers” that riveted me, it was his vast, immobile forehead. How much willpower does it take to keep one’s forehead completely motionless? Was it Botox? An ancient martial arts technique? I still don’t know, but I do know that Joe Scarborough will never be trapped inside a burning building because he can always batter his way to safety with his mighty forehead.

The talking heads would finish their segments and then come back to the teeny weeny little lounge to get their coats. On TV they were all bug-eyes and weird teeth like some race of earnest goblins, but in person they looked completely normal. The camera was like a funhouse lens twisting their faces into caricatures. At that point I knew my goose was cooked since my face is already twisted into a caricature. To have it further distorted on TV would be like pouring gasoline on a roaring bonfire.

Before I could panic a producer bustled in and took me to a tiny broom closet. There were a few lights clipped to the ceiling and a pull-down backdrop of New York behind me. There wasn’t even a camera, just a lens on the wall. A long, dildo-like earpiece, covered in alcohol, was inserted into my right ear; an experience akin to getting a Wet Willie that just won’t stop. William Donahue was down the hall in another broom closet, and Joe Scarborough was in Washington DC presumably in a broom closet of his very own.

“Look into the lens,” the producer said. “Don't ever look away from the lens. And try not to let them bulldoze you.” And then I was shut in. My only connection to the show was the Wet Willie, which was barking instructions at me: “Don’t look away from the lens. Sit up!” In the background I could hear Scarborough’s voice talking about anti-American extremists and that’s when I realized what I was: the designated extremist.

Suddenly he was talking to me. Between not slouching, trying to keep my hands away from my face, avoiding clearing my throat and staring directly into the lens I barely heard what he was saying. But it was exactly what I had figured: they were out to crucify Gary Busey and Billy Zane. They “had a problem” with Zane and Busey’s career choices. I’m sure Gary Busey’s agent can empathize.

The first thing I said was that as a patriotic American I believed in freedom of speech and of association and that these guys could do whatever they wanted as long as it wasn’t illegal even if I didn’t agree with it. Then Bill Donohue launched into a tirade and I interrupted him.

“I think it’s important for the viewers to know that none of us have actually seen this movie,” I said.

“Shut up, pal,” Donohue snarled. Then he said that most actors would sodomize their mothers to get a paycheck. Trust the Catholic to bring up sodomy right off the bat, the less charitable side of my nature thought. Then they sprung the trap. The movie was anti-Semitic. How could I defend anti-Semites?

To hear William Donahue, the man who had appeared on this very same show a while back to say, “Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular,” getting upset about anti-Semitism was like getting punched so hard by Superman that I had ripped through the fabric of space and time and landed in Bizarro World. My wife is Jewish and if she’s representative of Jews in general, I think they’re more than capable of defending themselves.

Then Scarborough brought the end game. “So you’re telling me that if Errol Flynn made a movie in the 30’s that was pro-Nazi you wouldn’t have a problem with that?” Nazis are to debate what the atom bomb was to World War II: the end. When Nazism comes up in a conversation a bell should ding and everybody should be allowed to go home. If the only way to defend your position is to resort to the Nazi analogy then you need to accept that you can't actually defend your position.

But I failed. I was weak. I answered him. “No, I wouldn’t. I think he has a right to do what he wants no matter how objectionable I find it.” Then Scarborough said it. The other conversation killer. “Whatever.” I was stunned. This was a political debate and he had just said “Whatever”? The word that makes parents see red. The word that is the conversational nuclear option for tweens?

“Whatever? What are you guys?” I asked “A couple of teenage girls?” I began to laugh and threw the “whatever” W but the camera had cut away and the conversation was over. I would like to take this moment to apologize to teenage girls. I know teenage girls and Donahue and Scarborough are no teenage girls. The producer dashed into the room, “That was great, that was great,” she said, sponging blood from the walls. “Look, you should know that Bill Donohue is in these same offices so you might run into him. I’m just warning you.”

I scrammed. A friend called my cell phone and as we chatted the elevator door opened and I was confronted with an impassable wall of garbage. Bill Donahue sprung up behind me and I froze.

“That’s the service elevator,” he said. “The one you want is around the corner.”

I hung up and went and waited for the elevator with him.

“That was fun,” I told him. “Next time they should just dig a pit and let us wrestle for it.” He laughed and shook my hand.

“Usually I’m the one they tell to shut up. I almost never have to tell the other guy to shut up. You just have to start yelling and get in there first.”

And then we had a very nice elevator ride, both of us pumped up on adrenaline and laughing and chatting. And I have to say that he was a very decent fellow, offering some tips and saying that he thought it went well. And that’s when I realized: this was professional wrestling. Public discourse has become a sport where everyone takes on a personality and acts outrageously because they want to be invited back. It wasn’t about debating the topics, it was about making yourself the best guest possible.

Who knows if Bill Donahue believes the things he says? But they’re good TV and that’s why he says them. Even if he responds to this post who knows if it’s how he really feels or if he’s merely maintaining his public image? And realizing this makes me depressed. It depresses me for the same reason the “Would you have a problem with Errol Flynn in a pro-Nazi movie” question depresses me.

What do they mean “would I have a problem”? Would I lose sleep over it? I don’t know. Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh were both Nazi sympathizers and I don’t stay awake at night because I’m tormented by that thought. I find Nazi-ism reprehensible, but if “having a problem” means that I have to accuse Errol Flynn of incestual sodomy and scream about his career choices then no, I don’t have a problem. An individual vocally condemning racism, or any of the other isms, is making a meaningless gesture. Racism is something you choose not to paricipate in, or you choose not to encourage, it's not something you dust off your soapbox and stand on to denounce. That's like proclaiming that ice cream is yummy: it's a "duh" argument. It makes you feel righteous and gives you the illusion of being moral, but it doesn't accomplish the American ideal of bringing people together despite their differences. So within the context of the show I didn't have “a problem" with Errol Flynn in a pro-Nazi movie because "having a problem" is meaningless. That's like asking someone if they'd “have a problem" with someone who killed their parents. Of course they would, but there are people who seek to forgive those who've done them harm and engage them in a dialogue despite their personal pain and I find those individuals far more worthy of praise and far more admirable than people who begin and end with "having a problem".

But because I don’t “have a problem” I’m the one with a problem. It means I’ll never be invited back to “Scarborough Country”. And if I never get invited back, I’ll never get my cookie.

Labels: Awesome, blogs, dead links, funny-ass shit, Islam, movies, Truth, tv, World Affairs

But this is some funny shit right here. Via Cobb, though I first came across Zombietime's Anatomy of a Photograph via James Hudnall's site. That article has since been updated with a rebuttal to an article (itself a rebuttal) by the news organization in question (no pun intended).

Also worth looking at; The Tookie vigil from about a month ago. Hell, there's lots a' good stuff on there.

Labels: Fucking Idiots, funny-ass shit, politics, society, Truth, World Affairs

Okay, Family Guy isn't funny, but The Assimilated Negro is. Click on the title above to find out for yourself. And categorize this as "funny because it's true".

Labels: blogs, Truth, tv

I just don't.


January 4th, 2008 - Okay. Sometimes I do.

Labels: Truth, tv

I think he's one guy you can cross off this year's Christmas list.

Just finished reading the "Los Angeles County District Attorneys Response To Stanley Williams' Petition For Executive Clemency". (found via Cobb) Interesting read, all in all, but I found the following to be of particular interest;

"Moreover, Williams remains loyal to the gang member street code of ethics. He has refused, despite his hollow claims of attonement, to be debriefed by the prison authorities. Such a debriefing could provide the prison authorities with important information to aid them in establishing institutional security. It would also provide tremendous insight into how the gang members operate within the prison walls and how they are able to continue their criminal activities on our city streets while locked up behind those walls. Lastly, it wouldshow that Williams has finally renounced his criminal life, and in some small way, has begun to accept responsibility for his actions.

Despite the value of such a debriefing, Williams, falling back on his ever-present gang mentality, claims that he would not submit to a debriefing because to do so would be to act as a "snitch" and as any gang member would concede, in the gang world there is nothing lower in the hierarchal order then a snitch."

In other words: reformed, my ass.
I have some simpathy for those who oppose the death penalty based on their view on life and whatnot, but the bullshit being spouted by Jesse Jackson and his collection of C-list celebrities (and Snoop Dogg) is a little unbareable. Children's books? Get the fuck outta here! Innocence? Come on! Seriously! He's the co-founder of the Crips. He's unleashed a virus that's killed thousands.
Jesse's now on my "Harry Belafonte list of formerly useful activist celebrities I previously respected". I think there's only two people on this list, Jesse (it was a long time coming, wasn't it?) and Mr. Tallyman, who thinks that calling Colin Powell an uncle tom is decent political discourse. This list might be bigger, but I rarely remember to write these things down.

My only gripe about the death penalty is that it isn't often enough dealt to those who snuff out black lives, whatever the color of the perp. Some would say, "hey, there's a reason to abolish the death penalty." I say, "no, we know what the problem is. Fix it." Also, 24 years of appeals? Isn't that excessive?

Labels: death, society, solutions?, terrorism, Truth

From Bill Maher's "New Rules" this week (which I initially saw at Daily Kos);

And finally, New Rule: America must recall the president. That's what this country needs. A good, old-fashioned, California-style recall election! Complete with Gary Coleman, porno actresses and action film stars. And just like Schwarzenegger's predecessor here in California, George Bush is now so unpopular, he must defend his job against...Russell Crowe. Because at this point, I want a leader who will throw a phone at somebody. In fact, let's have only phone throwers. Naomi Campbell can be the vice-president!

Now, I kid, but seriously, Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you anymore. There's no more money to spend. You used up all of that. You can't start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.

Yeah, listen to your mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit card's maxed out, and no one is speaking to you: mission accomplished! Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or spaceman?!

Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying that there's so many other things that you, as president, could involve yourself in...Please don't. I know, I know, there's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela, and eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote. But, sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man.

Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans...Maybe you're just not lucky!

I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to you, and what he's saying is, "Take a hint."

Labels: funny-ass shit, politics, Truth, tv

W can pick from the right, and be left with a liberal

As the debate over Sandra Day O'Connor's Supreme Court replacement heats up, it seems to me that the question of ideology as it arrives from either the right or the left is always in conflict with the complexity of human nature as we have seen it played out in the modern era of the Supreme Court. Once a person who seemed very predictable becomes a Supreme Court justice, anything can happen. A former klansman like Hugo Black can become a startlingly liberal justice, supporting civil rights and other things one would not expect from a man who threw his lot in with ruthless redneck terrorists. Lyndon Johnson began as a segregationist but ended up the greatest legislator of civil rights since Abraham Lincoln. I think such surprises should be expected in our country, and it is a good thing that we can no longer stereotype any group and assume automatic allegiance when it comes to matters of individual choice. The sooner both the right and the left can endure the idea of human complexity, the finer our arguments will be and the richer we will become as the result of debates that are defined by high quality ideas as opposed to name-calling. But in our progressively contentious era, it does not matter which side is arguing because one can easily be dehumanized if he or she supports positions opposed to a given group's ideology. Whether or not Clarence Thomas' decisions are good or bad, liberals would say his great sin is that he is, first, a Republican and second a conservative. It seems that a black person can only be true and human if his decisions are in line with the kind that Jesse Jackson would make. It is no different on the other side. If a black person makes conservative decisions or tends to align himself with conservatives, those on the right will say, "Now there's a black man who thinks for himself." The point, obviously, is that those black people who think differently have been programmed like windup dummies to crank out an ideology that they have never given any thought to, preferring to follow orders dropped from the liberal gods above. Both positions are hogwash, and we should by now know that no one of any ethnic groups or religion is automatically going to think or feel a certain way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stanley Crouch is a columnist, novelist, essayist, critic and television commentator. He has served since 1987 as an artistic consultant at Lincoln Center and is a co-founder of the department known as Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 1993, he received both the Jean Stein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a MacArthur Foundation grant. He is now working on a biography of Charlie Parker.

Labels: politics, Truth

From DailyKos.com

How the Islamic crazies are like the Right

by kos

Mon Jul 4th, 2005 at 23:47:07 PDT

Funny how the wingers try to claim American liberals are in league with crazy fundamentalist Muslims.

Reality is, we hate everything Islamic fundamentalism stands for. On the other hand, the Dobson's of the Republican Party -- you know, the people running the show -- have far more in common with the enemy than they'd ever like to admit.

Religion in government

Al Qaida/Taliban: One and the same
American Taliban: One and the same
Liberals: Separation of church and state

Schools

Al Qaida/Taliban: Religious indoctrination. Run by clergy.
American Taliban: School prayer. Religious indoctrination (creationism and "intelligent design"). Private religious school system.
Liberals: Leave religious teachings to parents and sunday school.

Women

Al Qaida/Taliban: No school, must cover entire body, no rights
American Taliban: Government control over reproductive freedoms, hostility to Title IX, hostility to working women
Liberals: Equality of the sexes

Religious freedom

Al Qaida/Taliban: 'Think like us, or we'll whiip you and/or chop off your head'
American Taliban: 'Think like us, or we'll condemn you to hell'
Liberals: To each her own

Homosexuality

Al Qaida/Taliban: Eradicate them from society
American Taliban: Eradicate them from society
Liberals: Equality under the law

You guys can take it from here.

Update (from the comments):

Torture

Al Qaida/Taliban: Torture them or chop off their heads
American Taliban: Torture them or homosexually rape them.
Liberals: No torture

Medicine and Science

Al Qaida/Taliban: Faith-based world view
American Taliban: Faith-based world view
Liberals: Reality-based community

and part two

They are more like our enemy, Part II

by kos

Tue Jul 5th, 2005 at 12:56:25 PDT

Last night I wrote "How the Islamic crazies are like the Right" to hammer home how fundamentalist Islam has more in common with the radical religious right, the American Taliban, than it does with the American Left.

This is a key point-- it was easier for the Right to tie the American Left with our previous boogeyman, the communists, since we technically were nearer to the extreme left than where conservatives.

But today, things look quite different. I started the ball rolling on similarities on that previous post. Here are more similarities, as submitted by readers:

Foreign Policy

Al Qaida/Taliban: World domination - do it our way or we attack
American Taliban: World domination - do it our way or we attack
Liberals: Peace and international cooperation

Executing Minors

Al Qaida/Taliban: Executing Minors OK
American Taliban: Executing Minors OK
Liberals: Find this to be a barbaric and embarrassing practice

Pop Culture

Al Qaida/Taliban: Hate it... kill it
American Taliban: Hate it... ban it
Liberals: Laugh at it... boycott it

Self-image

Al Qaida/Taliban: Belief in their own infallibility
American Taliban: Belief in their own infallibility
Liberals: Willingness to consider other viewpoints

God

Al Qaida/Taliban: God is on our side and will help us kill our enemies
American Taliban: God is on our side and will help us kill our enemies
Liberals: God may or may not exist and will not help us kill anyone

Stem Cell Research

Al Qaida/Taliban: No Stem cell research
American Taliban: No Stem cell research
Liberals: Stem cell research

Leaders

Al Qaida/Taliban: God choose Osama Bin Laden to defeat the Great Satan
American Taliban: God choose George W. Bush to lead us
Liberals: God didn't choose anyone

Use of Force

Al Qaida/Taliban: As a means of propagating a world view
American Taliban: As a means of propagating a world view
Liberals: As a last resort

Bush's War in Iraq

Al Qaida/Taliban: Love it!
American Taliban: Love it!
Liberals: It's a disaster

Press

Al Qaida/Taliban: Control of the Press
American Taliban: Manipulation of the Press
Liberals: Freedom of the Press

Free Speech

Al Qaida/Taliban: Anyone who disagrees with us is an infidel and must be silenced
American Taliban: Anyone who disagrees with us is a traitor and must be silenced
Liberals: Anyone who disagrees with us is in for a spirited discussion

Individuals

Al Qaida/Taliban: Conform or else
American Taliban: Conform or else
Liberals: Embrace diversity

Cooperation

Al Qaida/Taliban: You're either with us or against us
American Taliban: You're either with us or against us
Liberals: We're all in this together

Tolerance

Al Qaida/Taliban: Death to the infidels
American Taliban: Kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity
Liberals: Live and let live

Conscience

Al Qaida/Taliban: Obedience to authority
American Taliban: Obedience to authority
Liberals: Critical reflection

Origins

Al Qaida/Taliban: Universe and man created 6,000 years ago by God
American Taliban: Universe and man created 6,000 years ago by God
Liberals: The Universe began as we know it at least 14 billion years ago, maybe more

Leaders

Al Qaida/Taliban: Subservient to will of its leaders
American Taliban: Subservient to will of its leaders
Liberals: Will served by Representative government

Fear

Al Qaida/Taliban: Life is scary and uncertain, seek refuge in moral absolutes and scorn those that threaten those absolutes
American Taliban: Life is scary and uncertain, seek refuge in moral absolutes and scorn those that threaten those absolutes
Liberals: Life is scary and uncertain, seek refuge in accepting that respect for our fellow man and the individual choices he/she makes is eminently moral

Women

Al Qaida/Taliban: A woman's place is in the home
American Taliban: A woman's place is in the home
Liberals: A woman's place is wherever she wants it to be

Marriage

Al Qaida/Taliban: Marriage is only between a man and a woman
American Taliban: Marriage is only between a man and a woman
Liberals: Marriage is between any two people who love each other

We could keep this up all day, I suspect. Remember, the point isn't that the American Taliban is just like Al Qaida (though given the chance...), the point is that there's no reason that liberals would ever "root" for Al Qaida or the Taliban or any of the crazies in the Islamic fundamentalist world.

The reasons we hate the American Taliban are the same reasons we hate fundamentalists of all stripes -- they seek to impose their own moral code on the rest of society, and do so with the zeal and moral absolutism possible only from those who believe they are doing "God's work".

Labels: civil rights, funny-ass shit, Islam, politics, religion, terrorism, Truth

I still like this idea, though a columnist brought up a good point; That it took quite a while to get all of that office space (at the original WTC) rented. If that's still gonna be an issue, then the practicality of this project is questionable. Still, the proper response to the destruction of such an American icon, is not to complete the work of the terrorists, but to rebuild and turn their "martyrdom" into empty, meaningless gestures.

Swiped from the Daily News...

Trump twin tower plea

Build a new, taller WTC

BY PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


If Donald Trump's "new" design for the World Trade Center site looks familiar, that's because it is.

Engineer Ken Gardner has touted his plan to build new twin towers for more than a year, even displaying a 9-foot-tall model as recently as last week on MSNBC.

Trump, who has dismissed the planned Freedom Tower as "a disgusting design," will now champion Gardner's twin towers concept at Trump Tower today.

Unless Gardner modified his design before today's date with Trump, the proposed north tower would be the world's tallest building at 1,858 feet, even taller than the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower.

Still, Gardner and Trump have no say in the matter.

Howard Rubenstein, the spokesman for Larry Silverstein, the main developer of the World Trade Center site, said: "Donald Trump is both a friend and a respected colleague of Larry Silverstein, and Larry is always interested in what Trump is thinking.

"However, Larry Silverstein's only concern right now is designing a safe and spectacular Freedom Tower in keeping with the well-established master plan for the site."

When Gov. Pataki was asked yesterday if he was upset that Trump was presenting an alternative design, he said: "This is New York, and people do what they want to do."

He added: "Larry Silverstein owns the development rights. The Port Authority owns the land, and we have a public process that has resulted in what I believe is a visionary master site plan that is being implemented intelligently and appropriately."

That didn't stop Trump yesterday from fuming, "Why are we building this monstrous 'skeleton' known as Freedom Tower? If Freedom Tower is built, the terrorists win."

This isn't the first time that Trump and Gardner have hooked up.

For last year's run of "The Apprentice," Gardner told Fox News Channel that he built an architectural model of Trump Tower in Chicago, where winner Bill Rancic went to supervise construction.

His design for the World Trade Center site - done with architect Henry Belton - can be seen at www.makenynyagain.com.

With Joe Mahoney

Labels: nostalgia, solutions?, terrorism, Truth

Another swipe from the New York Post. One might get the idea, that I actually like this paper. I don't. Doesn't mean I won't look through it every now and then. This piece expresses a suspicion I've harbored for a while, especially about "ebonics", and why (to my ears), African-Americans sound completely different to Black Africans across the non-American diaspora. This is not to say we all sound the same, but there are similarities I hear in various dialects that suggest some sort of relationship. To me, African-American (not counting the Geechees, which I've probably spelled wrong) slang sounds completely removed from that relationship.

The other points are interesting as well. I plan on buying Mr. Sowell's book and giving it a read.


By WILLIAM RASPBERRY

May 17, 2005 -- THE plight of have-not blacks in America's urban ghettos, says economist Thomas Sowell, can be laid at the feet of white people.

And not just any white folks. The culprits are that particular breed of white people known as "rednecks."

If you've followed the writings of Sowell for as long as I have, you'll know that he's not saying anything as simple as racism accounts for today's black poverty. He's saying something much more complex and, to my mind, far more intriguing.

Immigration from the British Isles to the New World was not so random as many of us imagine. Most of the settlers of Massachusetts, for instance, came from near Haverhill in East Anglia. Virginia aristocrats came from the south and west of England.

And the Deep South was populated largely by immigrants from the northern borderlands, Ulster and the Scottish Highlands — from "among people who were called 'rednecks' and 'crackers' in Britain before they ever saw America." And these are the people who formed the culture — the speech patterns, preaching styles, social behaviors, propensity for violence and attitudes toward schooling — that became the culture of Southern blacks, Sowell claims in his new book, "Black Rednecks and White Liberals."

And it is this cultural heritage, he argues, "more so than survivals of African cultures," that has produced the urban black culture of today.

So what?

So this, says Sowell: The redneck culture has been a developmental millstone for both blacks and whites imbued in it — witness the lower academic achievement in the Deep South.

But he says it has been preserved most faithfully in the black ghettos — just as the French spoken in Quebec retains formulations now considered archaic in France. Indeed, in a fascinating switcheroo, the redneck culture has become, to many of its defenders, the authentic black culture and, on that account, sacrosanct.

And it continues to be a millstone, though many of the penalties it extracts are blamed on racism.

But as Sowell argues — and has been arguing for decades — the racism explanation cannot account for differential outcomes among blacks from within and without the redneck culture. For instance, a recent study found that most of Harvard's black alumni were either from the Caribbean or Africa or were children of Caribbean or African immigrants.

It is interesting to read the Sowell analysis alongside University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Eric Dyson's new book, "Is Bill Cosby Right? (Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?)."

I hope it won't give away too much of the plot to reveal that his answers to his own questions are: No and Yes.

Dyson, who can coin a phrase with the best of them, spends a large part of his new work defending the "knuckleheads" of Cosby's inelegant description against those who (like Cosby) believe their refusal to adapt the manners and language of the middle class is holding them back.

Or as Dyson puts it, defending the Ghettocracy from the Afristocracy.

The point, as he is at great pains to make, is that there's nothing wrong in the ghetto that an end to racism wouldn't fix. For Cosby to suggest that slovenly language and dress have anything to do with the trouble that black youth are in is to blame the victim and "let white people off the hook."

And Cosby, whom Dyson "deeply respects," etc., has been letting white people off the hook for years — with his universal (rather than an authentically black) approach to humor and even with his toweringly successful Huxtable family (which reassured white TV viewers that the nightmare of racism had ended and it was safe to lay their guilt aside).

The danger is that in our zeal to score points off one another, we'll forget what the game is about in the first place. Dyson, for example, roundly defends the black youngsters whose circumstances sparked the Cosby campaign; but he has no practical advice for them. It is up to the rest of us, he suggests, to keep alive the faith that racism is the only explanation we need.

Is Sowell's redneck culture a better one? Perhaps more to the point, is it salable?

One thing seems beyond dispute: Maybe we haven't laid racism to rest, but we have reached the point where what we do matters more than what is done to us. That's great, good news. Would somebody write a book about it?

E-mail: willrasp@washpost.com

Labels: society, Truth

and I agree. In my mind, the flakey shit they've considered building on the "ground zero" site would seem to only complete the job begun by Osama Bin ladin. I want the towers back.

Here's the story, swiped from the NY Post:

TRUMP: BUILD 'TWINS'

By FREDRIC U. DICKER in Albany and TOM TOPOUSIS in N.Y.
PHOTO DONALD TRUMP
Photo: Getty Images

Email Archives
Print Reprint

May 6, 2005 -- Donald Trump called on Gov. Pataki yesterday to ditch his just-announced "redesign" of the Freedom Tower and instead rebuild the Twin Towers as they were — but at least one story higher.

"I think the World Trade Center should be rebuilt on the site, only stronger and a little bit taller, even if it's only one story taller," the billionaire builder told The Post.

"They should duplicate the World Trade Center and not build something that looks like an empty skeleton."

The Twin Towers had stood at 110 stories.

Asked if he planned to directly communicate his view to Pataki, Trump responded, "He'll know it when he reads this, right?"

Trump also unleashed a harsh assessment of Ground Zero master planner Daniel Libeskind, suggesting the man Pataki has called an international-class genius isn't fit to be, well, an apprentice.

"The design for the Freedom Tower is an egghead design, designed by an egghead, which has no practical application and which, frankly, didn't look very good.

"I've gotten great reviews on my buildings. I'm somebody who believes strongly in great architecture and this [the Freedom Tower] was a design that is just not a good design," Trump added.

A spokesman for Libeskind shot back: "I suppose Trump wants to add an extra floor to make room for his name. That's probably not the kind of iconic symbol anyone had in mind for this site."

Trump, meanwhile, praised World Trade Center leaseholder and builder Larry Silverstein, calling him a "wonderful professional who sort of got roped" by Pataki into having to back the Freedom Tower design.

"I don't think this is something he really wanted," Trump said of Silverstein, who — at least for now — has the responsibility for rebuilding whatever is erected at Ground Zero.

Aides to Pataki have recently suggested privately that Silverstein has been dragging his feet on the building process and has made unreasonable demands for funding.

Earlier this week, reports from unnamed sources claimed that if Silverstein didn't get the project going, the state and city would consider taking control of the site through eminent domain.

A source familiar with the developer's legal strategy predicted that a forced eviction of Silverstein from the project would never happen because the state would not be able to claim his $4.6 billion insurance payout to use for the project.

Silverstein, who recently applied for $3.5 billion in tax-free Liberty Bonds for WTC reconstruction, said he wants additional public funding to help pay for security.

Additional reporting by David Seifman

Labels: nostalgia, solutions?, terrorism, Truth, World Affairs

From the NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/02-18-2005/news/story/282121p-241737c.html

Coming distractions

City Council wants theaters to tell truth on movie times

BY DAVID SALTONSTALL DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

It's the latest horror at the movies: endless ads for everything from ladies' underwear to perfume to soda. But a new City Council bill aims to set moviegoers free with a different kind of advertising - movie listings that reflect when movies actually begin, not the ads and previews before. "We can't outlaw advertising," said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), author of the bill. "But at least we can tell the industry that they have to be honest about when their movies start, not their ads." She shouldn't have much trouble finding support among the city's film buffs, many of whom say they feel entrapped not by previews - which many like - but by the growing number of TV-like commercials that now precede most flicks. "I didn't pay to see the ads," said Lorraine Lew, 33, a dietician from Queens, as she headed to the movies yesterday. "I paid to see the movies and the previews." At one recent showing of the sleeper hit "Sideways" at the Loews 34th St. in Manhattan, for instance, seven ads - for everything from Coke to the Jamaica Tourist Board - competed with five previews. The result? The movie started 16 minutes after its advertised time. If passed, Brewer's bill would require theaters to advertise the "actual start time" of any movie, not when ads and previews begin. Any theater that doesn't comply could face fines of $500 to $1,000 for each infraction. Not surprisingly, the city's larger theater chains are giving two thumbs down to the idea, saying moviegoers know to expect "pre-feature content" at any movie. "We believe that the public understands that the feature film starts sometime after the published showtime," said a statement from Loews Cineplex, which has 15 theaters in the five boroughs. Some of the city's smaller, independent theaters don't have to be forced into providing truth in advertising. At the BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn, for instance, movies start when advertised, and there are never any ads mixed among the previews. "We have to respect people's time," said theater manager Efi Shahar. If passed, Brewer's bill would be a first in the nation. "In the scheme of things, it isn't life or death," said Brewer. "But people shouldn't feel used after going to the movies." With Kate Meyer and Kira Peikoff Originally published on February 18, 2005

Labels: movies, solutions?, Truth